1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a design evaluation method, equipment thereof, and a goods design method for obtaining the evaluation about quality of designing goods on the occasion of manufacturing various types of products such as automobiles or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, the design of industrial products or the like becomes one of important elements influencing the sales of goods in addition to the essential performance of the products. In particular, since the design according to the appearance of automobiles variously changes by consumers, liking, fashion, or the like, in a development phase before reaching a design and manufacturing phase, enough investigation is demanded in the decision of the design. Then, conventionally, the final design is decided on the basis of the evaluation that is reported by word of mouth or in writing by an estimator observing a design where product design is drawn.
However, the evaluation for the design is not highly reliable data since the evaluation does not always coincide with intuitive impression because subjective judgment based on the estimator""s knowledge and experience is added to visual impression.
In addition, actually, when a consumer purchases a product, it is common that the consumer is given an incentive to purchase the product by looking at a photograph of a real object of the product displayed in an advertisement, on a catalog, or the like, or touching goods exhibited in a store. However, in a development phase where a real object of the product does not exist, only the evaluation for the design can be obtained, and furthermore there are many cases that the visual impression of the design and real object is different from each other.
Therefore, in any case, there is a case of resulting in that it could not be convinced in the development phase that the products would be largely sold by the design, and sales that were expected at the time of design decision are not realized in real sale.
A design evaluation method of the present invention includes the steps of outputting an image, where the design of an evaluated object is expressed, by predetermined image output means, measuring brain waves of an arbitrary test subject while showing this image to the test subject, and evaluating the design of the evaluated object on the basis of brain wave reactions.
Thereby, since the design of the evaluated object is evaluated on the basis of the brain wave reaction of the test subject who looks at the image, it is possible to obtain an intuitive evaluation result without any subjective judgement based on the knowledge and experience of the test subject.
In this case, by comparing a pattern of a local distribution condition of a brain wave electric potential on a test subject""s scalp with a plural kind of reference patterns set beforehand, and judging which of the reference patterns is similar to the pattern of the brain wave electric potential measured, it is possible to measure the brain wave reaction more concretely on the basis of a characteristic of each reference pattern, for example, anger, joy, sorrow, or the like. In addition, by evaluating the design on the basis of the brain wave reactions of the test subject in a predetermined scene of the image, it becomes possible to measure an arbitrary scene where, for example, a reaction being important in evaluation is forecasted.
Moreover, by using images including scenes that show the evaluated object from different angles, for example, in the case that the evaluated object is an automobile, scenes, where the automobile is displayed from different angles such as the front and the side, or the like, and so on are expressed by the images.
In addition, by using images including the scenes which represent dynamic changes of the evaluated object, for example, if the evaluated object is an automobile, it is possible to express scenes or the like that generate dynamic changes such as a driving state of the automobile or an operating state of a moving part is expressed by images.
Moreover, by using images including scenes where represent the evaluated object with predetermined backgrounds, for example, if the evaluated object is an automobile, scenes or the like, that include different backgrounds such as a town area, a mountainous area, a daytime scene, a night scene, and each weather scene, are expressed by images.
In addition, by using images including scenes where an evaluated object is expressed with other articles or persons, for example, if the evaluated object is an automobile, scenes include other articles such as accessories, and embarkation, or persons such as a driver and a passenger are expressed by images.
Moreover, by producing the images by using computer graphics, it becomes possible to arbitrarily express the design of the evaluated object by the computer graphics.
Furthermore, by expressing an evaluated object, whose real object does not exist, in the image, the evaluated object whose real object does not exist is virtually expressed by the computer graphics.
In addition, by making the evaluated object be a vehicle, for example, the design of the vehicle such as an automobile or a motorcycle where appearance design is regarded as important is evaluated.
Moreover, in a goods design method of the present invention, the final design of goods can be decided on the basis of a highly reliable evaluation result before shifting to a design and manufacturing phase of the goods by using this design evaluation method. It, therefore, becomes possible to produce the goods having high probability of obtaining good sales, and hence, it is possible to contribute to the increase of sellers"" profits.